Introduction
Human resources are a set of people in an organization who make up its workforce. They can also be referred to as human capital, which means the knowledge individuals can contribute to the organization. Armstrong’s statement on human capital management is relevant because these people contain skills that are essential to the organization and should be treated as assets. Employee capability, productivity, and commitment can determine an organization’s success or failure. When a firm identifies its workforce and company’s needs, the employees become highly productive. Human resources add value to an organization and can be treated as assets to be invested in through resourcing, talent management, learning, development policies, and planning. Human resource management theory and culture change management concepts convey how human resources can be treated as company assets.
Discussion
Recognizing the importance of human resources in the organization is vital because companies will have better methods of recruiting and ensuring employees have a great working environment. According to Schuler and Jackson, the study of human resource management started in the mid-1970s as a response to growing professionalism in the field (Mayrhofer, Gooderham, and Brewster, 2019). Due to this, most organizations started to view human resource personnel as partners and should be involved in the company’s decision-making process because their inputs are very essential for the company. Various human management theories like organizational life cycle and role behavior show how companies treat these resources as assets.
Organizational life cycle theory is defined as the development of a firm from formation, growth, maturity, and decline. Throughout all life cycle stages, the organizations are affected by internal and external environmental factors (Mosca, Gianecchini, and Campagnolo, 2021). External factors include competitors, customers, politics, and weather changes. These internal factors include human resources, finance, and current technology and are the driving force in all these stages. The most critical stages of the organization’s life cycle are the formation and maturity points. At the formation stage, the organization requires personnel who will think big to implement an organizational structure that can survive the existing competition in the market (Mishra, Shukla, and Sujatha, 2021). Without a sound organizational structure, the organization will stop growing at the maturity stage. Human resources are treated as assets because of their innovation, creativity, teamwork, and good performance (Rasool, et al., 2019). These factors enable the business to withstand pressure from competitors.
Role behavior theory explains the behavior of teams and individuals in organizations. This helps the company’s decision-making process to know what measures to take in case of organizational changes and their expected outcomes (Qian et al., 2018). The organization needs to implement development policies and improve the working environment for human resources. This can be done through increased resources to stimulate new behavior in employees and enable them to cope with new market demands. Employees can be given rewards to encourage and promote excellent work in the company and punishments to cease lousy behavior.
Resource dependency theory started after the company’s overdependence on external resources appeared risky because of the unavailability of the resources. In times of economic recession, managers had a challenge in acquiring and utilizing scarce resources (Ozturk, 2020). The ability of firms to harness and use their resources, like labor, financial, and technological, makes the company competitive in the market. Human resources though scarce, are considered the essence of corporate power therefore, companies can train the existing employees to make them fit and flexible for the company’s changing needs (Davidescu, et al., 2020). When companies over-depend on infinite resources, it can be risky for the organization (Mishra, Shukla, and Sujatha, 2021). This made the emphasis shift to seeing employees as scarce resources that should be acquired, utilized, developed, and retrained for them to learn (Pak, et al. 2019). This is a great way to ensure that the companies train and retain staff and their knowledge for their great support.
General systems theory discusses how all departments should support each other for the firm to grow and remain competitive. For a business to thrive, it must adopt inputs from the environment and give outputs. Human resources is one of a company’s inputs when starting a firm. The firm implements policies in the recruitment process to help avoid errors, and this is because the mistake could hurt the entire organization. Similarly, if these resources are not well utilized in the input processing stage, the quality of goods produced will be deficient (El-Dirani, Houssein, and Hejase, 2020). The human capital theory focuses on the education and training of employees as a source of capital. Training and development are returnable investments that should be part of the organizational capital. This way, organizations can maintain talent in their firms leading to increased productivity and sales.
Cultural change management involves the change of the organization’s mission, vision, and process. This change affects both the individual and organizational levels of the company (Tang, 2019). Some organizations adapt to changes and alter their methods and behaviors to adjust to the new norm. For instance, the Nestle company identified the needs that were to come with change so when the managers initiated the change there was no challenge encountered in shifting (Joy, 2021). This is because the company put in place a good management structure that made it possible for it to adopt swiftly. Organizational change is complex and faces high degrees of reluctance from employees and collaborators. Corporate cultures must change with time to keep pace with social norms and technology. When a company is changing its systems, several factors like excellent communication, training programs, reward systems, organizational design change, and barriers to change must be considered.
Excellent communication is a critical factor in change because many organizations have failed in the implementation stage due to inadequate passing of information. Frequent upward and downward communication is essential for the change processes (Qian et al., 2018). Good communication on the firm’s needs during change can allow employees to show their talents and enable the organization to maintain them (Dewhurst and FitzPatrick, 2022). Using repetition and actions to convey the company’s vision can make employees learn. Similarly, it is difficult for employees to make a change when their leaders are resistant to new ideas and solutions (Fløvik, Knardahl, and Christensen, 2019). When some leaders are giving barriers to change, upper managers can dismiss them. This indicates that good leaders are assets to the company’s ability to code with changing times.
Training programs are essential when a company is experiencing change in that the employees learn the different ways to cope with the transformation. It can help all employees understand their roles in the job once the change is implemented. When organizations understand the difference between transactional and business training, they can provide employees with the necessary resources to serve both (Scheuch et al., 2021). Additionally, training and practice can help workers better serve customers and realize their needs and concerns. They are making new corporate symbols and reward systems for the employees to understand that things have transformed. The employer can make new corporate signs to show the new organizational culture. Some factors should be considered during the change to ensure employees have a smooth transition.
Adopting new reward systems like incentives or reasons for receiving the prize can also symbolize a transformation in the organization. For example, when a company has been giving rewards for team achievements and wants to shift to individual ones, it should start noticing and awarding personal accomplishments (Manzoor, Wei, and Asif, 2021). This will make workers improve their talents, and the company will benefit from these gifts. When making the new corporate symbols, employers should ensure that the culture change fits the firm’s business strategy. A firm can reconsider its recruiting processes, rewards, formal reporting relationships, and performance appraisal. All this is done to ensure employees fit into the new organization’s culture. Lastly, organizational design change profoundly impacts employees because it transforms the physical appearance of the company. A methodological assessment involves analyzing change effects, giving room for expectations to be taken care of and decisions made to align with business objectives. It can also be done by visual cues, which can effectively let employees know what is expected of them.
Conclusion
In conclusion, organizational life cycle theory shows how humans are assets in their organizations because, without creativity, teamwork, and good performance, the business cannot move past the formation and maturity stage. Role behavior theory shows how a firm implements policies to improve the workplace for employees. Resource dependency theory depicts how human resources are scarce and should be acquired, utilized, developed, and retrained for them to learn. Cultural change management involves changing the organization’s mission, vision, and process. Good communication is essential to give employees room to express their ideas and ensure everyone knows their role in the firm. Training programs teach employees how to cope with the transformation. Changing reward systems like incentives to help improve talent among employees. Lastly, changing the organizational look can give employees hints about a new organizational structure using visual cues.
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